Destiny: Where Three Paths Cross
by Harmonybass
Summary: A story of three guardians from three different orders. Three different paths of life that cross to strive together as one.
1. Part 1 Chapter 1: Mission Brief

Part One: The Journey Begins_

"Kei Dragdoul, Trinity Eversteel, and Xor-3285. Please report to the Hall of Guardians."

Kei paused and looked over at the wire mesh of the intercom in confusion; He was never called down there... He put down the wrench he was using and slid out from underneath his ship, the large Ether Eater was in for maintenance after a sudden run-in with a small Cabal fleet, nothing too bad, just a scrape. Still needed to get the cockpit re-sealed though...

He tossed his helmet into the cockpit and turned towards the elevator that led up to the main hangar bay. He gestured to Arach, the Dead Orbit vendor before continuing to the Tower Plaza. Then down into the Hall of Guardians,there he found the three Vanguard leaders waiting for him. A little off to their right was a tall awoken titan, her short, almost black hair hung down to her shoulders. It stopped just before the dark strands touched her plasteel armor plating. She stood with her back straight and her chin high, attentive and ready to receive orders. Xor, a hunter with a reputation for ignoring orders on a colossal scale was nowhere to be seen, as to be expected. Kei nodded to Ikora as he walked over to stand beside Trinity.

The first one to speak was Commander Zavala, his voice rang out clearly through the room, "Ms. Eversteel, if you would please reveal our third guest."

Trinity responded with a nod, before dropping to the floor and sweeping her right leg backwards in a wide arc behind her. At first Kei was confused until he heard a crash and saw a blue and yellow Exo flicker out of active camouflage, he rolled around and grasped at where his head had hit the ground, "Jesus girl, warn a man before you sweep him off his feet like that. I could've gotten a concussion…"

The Titan narrowed her eyes towards the Hunter as she spoke, her irritation slightly edging itself into her tone, "I do not believe that Exos like yourself are even capable of receiving concussions. So cease your nonexistent complaints and listen to your superiors." With that she turned back to Zavala, nodding for him to continue.

"Now that we are all all present and accounted for, we may begin the mission brief." He said, turning to Cayde, who glanced to his ghost and waved his hand forwards. The ghost nodded and projected the blue-grey image of a massive fallen Ketch.

The hunter clapped his hands together and rocked backwards on his heels, "Ok guardians! This is your mission. See that Ketch? It's been drifting around the system for a few months now, It hasn't come anywhere near any of our outposts so we decided to leave it alone. Then this happened:", He raised his arm and snapped his fingers. The hologram of the fallen flagship blinked into static for a moment before pulling up a flat image of what looked like a landing pad of some sort. "This here is footage from our newly established outpost on Triton, after the incident with Oryx we decided to keep a relatively close eye on the space around the outer planets. The video here is shot from a helmet camera on one of the guardians stationed there. Cayde pushed another button and the video began playing.

The guardian in the video was standing still, leaning up against the main entrance of the base, he scanned the perimeter of the platform slowly, allowing Kei and the others to get a good look at the surroundings. Then there was a noise, a loud bang as something came out of slipspace. The guardian's head-cam swerved as he turned his head, he gasped and swore when he saw almost two dozen Fallen Skiffs speeding towards the landing platform. He raised a hand to his head and shouted, "Hey guys we've got a big problem up here! We need artillery of some kind fast!" He rushed over to the large door of the base and slammed his fist on a control panel, making the door lift out of the ground as it opened.

The first few drop-ships arrived and dropped several squads of vandals wielding electrified blades that immediately rushed the guardian, he scrambled underneath the door as soon as he could fit through the gap. He jumped to his feet and rushed over to another panel, his fist came down on the release button on the door and it slammed shut. Unfortunately not before several of the vandals were able to slip through and begin charging him. He pulled out an auto rifle and fired a volley of shots into the wave of Fallen soldiers. His attention was so focused on the vandals in front of him that he failed to notice the shimmer of fallen cloaking circling around him. The camera jerked upward suddenly, throwing the perspective to the ceiling before jerking back to the vandals and then sinking sideways to the floor, a pool of awoken blood began to seep out from around the camera's lense. Beyond the blood-stained paneling on the floor was she large hangar door, which started to open again as the fallen pressed the button to let the rest of the invaders in.

One fallen vandal stopped in front of the camera. It turned and stared straight at it, then it pulled out a pistol and shot the recording device, ending the video and sending it into static.

The guardians stood there in silence, contemplating what they had just seen. After a very lengthy ten second Xor clapped his hands together and took a few steps back, "Well, that looks _very_ fun and I'd _**love**_ to participate but I just remembered that I have something to do out in the… um… Reef, yeah. I have to pick something up from an arms dealer and it may take me a few days or so…" He stopped as he noticed everyone staring at him intently. He nodded to himself and spun on his heel, glancing over his shoulder as he-

 _Whump!_

Xor was suddenly thrown to the floor by Trinity. The Titan had him pinned to the floor with her knee and was holding his arms behind his back. He squirmed uncomfortably under her, "Ok! If we are going to be a fireteam you have _got_ to stop doing that missy.", the hunter said, clearly irritated that his attempts to evade the mission had failed.

The Trinity sighed, "If you would simply stop trying to ignore direct orders from your commanding officers, I would not be required to restrain you.", The Titan pulled back a little more forcefully on the exo's arms.

"That's enough Trinity." Zavala stepped forward and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. Trinity nodded and immediately stood at attention releasing Xor in the process. The vanguard commander turned to Xor on his spot on the ground, only a slight twitch of his lips portraying his amusement, "Now that you see that you cannot run off like you normally do, you are free to prepare for your mission, all of you."

 _Dismissed!_

* * *

 ** _This is the final revision of Chapter 1._**

 ** _Also! I've decided to actually label the chapters as I titled them on Google Docs._**

 ** _And I am Pleased to report that Part 2 of the story is coming soon... Very soon..._**


	2. Chapter 2: First Contact

Kei's Ether Eater drifted through slipspace, sandwiched tightly between two smaller fighters as the three guardians made their way to Neptune's moon, Triton. Trinity's Wolf Hunter flew close on his right while Xor's more streamlined Gloriole Jump sailed effortlessly to his left. The Ether Eater rumbled as it struggled to contain what was essentially three guardians' worth of supplies in its large cargo hold.

"So what do we do when we get there?", an anxious Xor spoke through the comm channel. Kei reached up above his head and flipped a switch, turning on his mike in order to reply.

"We've gone over this a million times Xor. as soon as we get out of slipspace we cloak, then work ourselves to our landing point." Kei recalled that said landing point was in a crater about a three and a half miles from the actual base, giving them plenty of headway in case of any Fallen ambushes. He continued as he recalled the plan to Xor, "After that we unpack and make our way through a series of caves discovered and mapped by other guardians. Once we are close enough to the base we break into the rear entrance.", he stopped to let Xor process the knowledge, "Got it?" He pictured the Xor nodding to himself as he sat in his own cockpit.

* * *

The collage of colors in slipspace finally dissipated as the three ships warped into orbit around Martian moon of Triton, immediately cloaking and hiding their presence.

"Huh...", said Xor over the comms. "Thought there'd be more, well, anything"

As Xor reported the aerospace surrounding Triton was completely devoid of anything that would be considered abnormal.

"As unorganized as the Fallen are they are not stupid.", Trinity explained. "Nobody would leave such a large fleet open for guardians and Awoken from the Reef to lay siege to."

Kei looked out of his own cockpit as well, taking in the empty lifeless feeling that emitted from the moon. He stared at its cratered surface, searching for any signs of Fallen activity as the three ships drifted silently to their destination.

The landing point came into view shortly after, a large flat crater far from the lost base. They landed without a hitch, engines hissing as they were turned off. Xor jumped out, not even bothering to put on a helmet before pulling his hood over his head and running to the rim of the crater. He cloaked as he materialized a sniper rifle, laying down on the crest of the crater and scanning the surroundings. "No sign that we were spotted…" He said into a comm on his wrist.

Kei looked over in the direction the Exo had vanished, "Try not to stray too far… Ok?" The last thing they needed was for the Hunter to go awol, taking down the Ketch already seemed like a daunting task without taking a member off of the fireteam. He turned to Trinity nodding to her as she jumped from her cockpit to the ground, beginning to check her weapons' ammunition in preparation for their journey.

"The caves that lead to the base are over that way, I recommend beginning our journey as soon as possible.", Trinity spoke as she opened one of the maroon cargo containers on Kei's Ether Eater. Kei watched as she pulled out a few packs of extra ammunition. He jumped when he realized that Xor was standing right behind him.

"Boo…", the Exo stated in a bored voice, a somewhat disappointed expression plastered to his blue-plated face. He sighed, "I thought you wizards were supposed to be magically enhanced or something…"

Kei raised an eyebrow in his helmet, "First of all, I'm a Warlock, not one of those creepy wizards in the hive. Second, where did you hear that? Since when have Warlocks ever been magically enhanced?", the Hunter only shrugged in response before walking over to his ship and grabbing his helmet out of the cockpit, it sealed itself with a hiss and he turned back to Kei.

"Well I know you can teleport and you do have magical powers and all. Seriously I dare you to try and find a Hunter who can shoot lightning out of their fingertips.", he stated before turning back to his ship and pulling a hand cannon out of the cockpit. He checked the drum before snapping it back in place and slipping it into a holster on his thigh.

The two of them were suddenly aware of their third party member standing a short distance away. Her arms were crossed impatiently as she stood there. "If you two would focus on the mission instead of what magical powers you mages have, we'd already be on our way to our destination. Hurry up and get equipped." She turned towards the edge of the crater and glanced back over her shoulder, "I'm going to scout the entrance to the caves. If you do not join me soon I will assume the two of you dead and continue without you." With that she marched off towards the dark entrance of the cave on the far side of the crater.

"Is is normal for the Awoken to be unusually cold and commanding?"

"Okay Xor. Lets not go down a possibly racist path here…", Kei replied pressing the palm of his hand to the front of his helmet.

"Mages?"

"Oh shut up…"

* * *

The dim lights of the cavern buzzed faintly as the three guardians made their way through the icy dark caves of Triton. Trinity was in the lead as she had been on the scouting mission to map the caves in the first place. Kei walked along behind her, almost asleep on his feet as he subconsciously set his mind to autopilot. Xor was having the hardest time out of the three, gasping and stumbling around the cave. At one point Trinity stopped and turned, almost growling as she stomped over to the seemingly exhausted Hunter. "What are you doing? Out of all of us at least you should be functioning at top priority. You do not have lungs, you are not exhausted!"

The Exo looked up from his place leaning on the wall. He was hunched over, one hand on the stone surface of the cave, the other hung limply at his side, a scout rifle clutched loosely in his hand. "Ok missy I guess you have a point. But doesn't this make you two feel better about your biological selves?" Trinity took in a breath as if to say something back but then shut it as the Hunter suddenly placed a finger where helmet her mouth would be, "Hold still… Nobody move… ", he whispered as he slowly raised his rifle, inching it to the point where it looked like it was pointed directly at Kei's face.

"Xor man… W-what're you doing buddy?", Kei began to sweat in his helmet, eyes darting nervously from Trinity to Xor to the dark barrel of the MIDA Multi-Tool pointed at his left eye.

"Don't. Move. An inch… you'll mess up my headshot…", he paused, "Ok I'm gonna count to three then I'll shoot, just trust me…" Kei nodded ever so slightly.

"One…"

"Two…"

BANG!

"Shit!"

Kei almost wet himself as he felt the force of the bullet sail no more than a centimeter from the metal of his helmet.

Xor pushed himself from his place on the wall with the hand supporting him and walked past the now jibbering Warlock, patting him on the shoulder as he did so. "Good job buddy, I don't know many guys who could stand that still with a gun pointed at their head." The hunter was crouched over something a few meters further in the tunnel. He poked at whatever was on the ground with the barrel of his rifle for a minute or two before making his way back to the group and tossing what remained of a Dreg helmet on the ground.

He took off his helmet and the metal plates of his face shifted to form a grin, "Welp, good news! Well good for me at least, is that I got the first kill today." Then his glowing white eyes took on a more grim expression, "Bad news is that we need to hurry." An ominous screech echoed through the cavern and they all turned to face the noise. "I think I might have made them mad…"

* * *

Hey! This is the third and final revision of the second chapter of FH.

Btw, I have already finished the first chapter of part 2 and will post it as soon as I am done editing the first part of the story.

Happy reading!


	3. Chapter 3: Hide and Seek

Kei stared down the scope of his sniper rifle and centered it on a Vandal's forehead.

Bang!

The four-armed Alien fell to the ground, throwing up a small cloud of light-grey dust as it impacted.

"That looks like we're good for now.", Kei concluded, looking up a Xor who was crouching beside him. The Exo nodded, raising his hands to make a pair of binoculars under his helmet's visor and proceeded to scan the horizon.

"Yes my good friend I do Believe that was the last of them.", the Exo stated sarcastically.

The three Guardians had given up on the caves, as they were soon filled with countless numbers of Fallen patrols. So they returned to the surface and were now making their way carefully across the small moon towards their destination: another cave on the edge of a large crater that was just big enough for someone to walk through.

The crater itself was littered with large boulders and craters. This made the three guardians jobs at least a little easier as they hadn't the need to be as careful while weaving around the rocks. Once again, Trinity had taken point, Kei in the middle, and Xor took up the rear. They trekked for half a mile before Trinity held up a fist, forming an "L" with her arm. "Get down, we've got Skiffs on the horizon."

They crouched and hid themselves among the dust-colored rocks, Xor simply vanished in a wisp of barely concealed light. Soon enough, the hum and groan of three Fallen Skiffs drew loud and Kei looked up from his hiding place to see them pass directly overhead. Heading in the direction they had come from.

Once their rumblings had faded completely, Trinity rose to her feet, nodding at Kei (And presumably Xor as well) to continue. The Hunter in the group flickered into reality beside Kei, staring in the direction the Skiffs had gone, "You don't think it's possible they found our ships… Do you?" He turned to Trinity and repeated his question, "Do you?"

The Titan stopped and turned to look back over her shoulder at the Exo, "I will be honest with you Xor, the thought had crossed my mind." Then she turned and continued walking as if that was the end of the conversation. Xor quickly walked up behind reached forward, catching a firm hold on the armor around her shoulder. The Titan visible tensed and Kei felt a chill run down his spine.

"Trinity… Are the ships safe? We all know that those ships are the only things we can use to get off this rock. And I for one don't want to be stuck here with a Ketch full of Fallen." The Exo's voice had turned strangely cold and he stood with his feet planted firmly on Triton's frozen ground. He seemed not moving an inch as he waited for the Titan to respond.

In one quick, fluid movement, Trinity had grabbed Xor's wrist and used the hunter's body weight to flip him over her shoulder. He landed with a thud and then grunted as Trinity dropped her knee on his chest, now the weight of the Titan's heavy armor pinned him to the ground. Xor gasped and his neck went limp.

"Have I ever told you how much you infuriate me?", she growled through her helmet, leaning forward until her head was only a few inches from the front of Xor's own, "I Hate you…", the air grew thick with the venomous tone in her voice, "You are lazy, you are selfish, and I for one think you should not be on this mission…", she rose from the Hunter's chest, permitting him to gasp and cough within his helmet, "It should not matter to you what condition the ships are in. You need to be prepared to die for this mission." Xor stopped struggling with Trinity's knee and let his head fall back against the dusty ground, but Trinity wasn't done yet. "Why do you insist wasting time while you have orders given to you from the most senior guardians at the tower. Do you not know what we stand for? We are Guardians. Guardians who protect the lives of those who cannot protect themselves, that is our one and only purpose in this life, and those that will follow. We lay down our lives over and over again, struggling to one day end this war." She finally stood, never taking her eyes off the Hunter, who was staring silently through the visor of his helmet. "Run if you want…But I will fight this war until I cannot fight any longer as it is what I was born to do." With that she huffed and stalked off in the direction of the distant outpost. Not even bothering to see if the others were going to follow.

Kei glanced down at Xor, the Hunter was sitting with one knee bent upwards, his left arm rested across his leg while his other hand stroked his the respirator on his helmet, as if deep in thought. Kei walked over and offered a hand to help him up. Xor dismissed the Warlock with the wave of his hand and stood up on his own, turning slowly to follow in the direction Trinity had gone. Not a word was said to Kei as he passed him.

* * *

The group traveled silently after that, except the occasional warning from Trinity about incoming fallen transports. Every few minutes Kei would glance worriedly between the Titan and the Hunter. When two members of a fireteam disagreed it tended to throw a wrench into the team's flow as a group, especially if they tended to get violent.

Finally, after almost a whole solar rotation, the three came to a small mound of rocks on a ledge that overlooked the base's landing platform. Xor had pulled out his sniper rifle and cloaked, jumping down the slope, sending up small clouds of icy dust until he cloaked completely, not even leaving footprints in the grey dusty ground. Kei stared down the scope of his pulse rifle, the ranges lenses of his scope granting him the view he needed to make out the distant shapes of the Fallen as they worked.

"What are they doing?", Kei mumbled to himself as he watched the Dregs shove large heavy-looking boxes around while Vandals and even a few Captain's stood above them on raised walkways, sometimes taking one of their four arms and making gestures towards one thing or another. He scooted backwards, away from the ridge where he was watching and pressed the side of his helmet, activating the comm channel, "I've got eyes one easily thirty Dregs, twelve Vandals, and four Captains. Trinity, Xor, can you confirm those numbers?" He crawled back up the hill to once again peer over the ridge of stone.

Trinity was peering through the scope of a sniper rifle, scanning the landing platform as Kei had done, "Confirmed for thirtyfive Dregs, twelve Vandals, and four Captains."

Kei rolled his eyes and focused his attention back on the platform. "Xor can you confirm?" Dead silence was the only answer.

"Xor? You copy?"

…

"Xo-"

"Shut up!", the harsh response from the Hunter made Kei jump.

"Xor what's wrong? What's happening?"

The hunter's only response was an annoyed huff…

Kei lowered his hand from his head and left the comm channel, covering his eyes with a hand in a subtle facepalm. "What does he think he's doing?" Trinity's only response was to sigh and shake her head in disappointment, folding her arms against her chest.

A few minutes later, Xor flickered out of active camouflage, "What I was doing was scouting their Ketch you idiots…", he stated, now standing not a meter away from Trinity and Kei. "Y'know, the biiig Fallen Ketch that we're supposed to blow up? The big one carrying the army of fallen? Well I was just on it.", he stomped in frustration and turned his back, huffing to himself inside his helmet.

Kei turned around to look back at the platform through his pulse rifle's scope. "How did you get inside it? No scratch that- Where did you find it?"

The Exo let out an aggravated sigh and reached down to pick up an icy rock. Then he suddenly marched up the ridge and chucked it as hard as he could, sending it as far as he could in the direction of the landing platform. Kei stood up abruptly, eyes widening in shock as he rushed up and grabbed Xor's arm before he could throw something else, "What are you doing!? You're going to give away our position you fool!" The Hunter only pointed as the small grey stone flew farther away.

His rock sailed through the space well over the Fallen working on moving the crates. Kei was surprised to hear a loud clank as the rock hit something solid and fell heavily to the ground. He was even more surprised when an area the size of several skyscrapers flickered for only a few seconds. The disruption was short but Kei could immediately tell what it was.

The Human took a few steps back, eyes growing wide as he realized the truth, "Travelers light…", he muttered in awe.


	4. Chapter 4: How not to be sneaky

Trinity, for once, seemed honestly impressed. Well, as impressed as the stoic Titan could ever could… Even if that only meant she had nothing to say in retort to the Hunter's actions.

The three Guardians carefully pulled back from their position and began looping their way around to where Xor had entered the ship. They ended up on the far side of the platform from where they had been, taking shelter behind a stack of large industrial-sized crates. Each of them keeping a close eye on the literal horde of Dregs only a few meters away.

"Hey Trinity, you gonna take point?", The Exo nodded to the Titan, obviously expecting the usual order.

"On the contrary, I believe it would be a more efficient strategy for you to take point yourself. You did say you managed to get through defenses and enter the vessel." Trinity peered around the crates that served as their cover, watching for patterns in the constant flow of the Dreg workers. Kei and Xor looked from each other to the Titan.

"Did she just?"

"I think she did…"

"Ha ha!", the Hunter exclaimed, throwing his fists into the air at the new development, "The reign of Xor-3285 has begun!"

Trinity was shaking her head, trying desperately to hide her amusement at the ecstatic Exo. She looked over once she had regained her composure, "Don't push it…" Her tone was serious but Kei was willing to bet that there might have even been a small smile under that rounded surface of plasteel helmet the Awoken Guardian wore.

Xor puffed out his chest, visibly taking a "deep breath" before letting it out and clapping his hands together once. "Now, down to business…" He rubbed his hands together and reached behind him underneath his cloak, pulling out a small cylindrical object, "Ok, now here's the fun part." Then without warning he threw the device on the ground causing it to explode in a weak almost invisible pale-blue shock wave, the wave itself only extending a couple meters before stopping and fading into nothingness.

Kei had trouble recognizing the change at first, then he suddenly noticed that he was all alone. "Trinity? Xor? Where'd you go?", he looked around searching for his fellow guardians as a feeling of panic began to rise in his chest. He stood up and peered around the pile of crates they had hid behind, placing his hand- His hand was gone… Kei looked down at his body and patted himself down, "No way…", The Warlock thought to himself.

"As you are probably figuring out, I have basically equipped you all with a kind of AoE active camouflage. *ahem* Patent Pending *ahem*", Kei rolled his eyes and looked around for the usual ripple of active camouflage. "Heh heh, Kei my friend, that kind of giveaway is old tech. This is my stuff, which I am letting you both borrow, but just this once. If either of you want to know where everyone is, all you two have to do is send out a pulse of light energy." Kei triggered a pulse of his light to flow out in a minuscule amount, immediately noticing pale-blue outlines of a Hunter and a Titan standing in front of him for a moment before their images faded and he was forced to send out another pulse to keep them visible. Xor's outline turned and began to walk around the crates, "Unless the Fallen over there have mastered Guardian tech and the like, I doubt they'll spot us. Just follow me and try not to run into anything this time."

Kei had to pulse his light constantly to keep pace with the other two guardians. Trinity was unusually silent as she crept along behind the Hunter, perhaps she was a little more impressed with Xor than Kei had first thought, however unlikely that may seem.

They wove their way through the busy landing platform, slipping between the dozens of Dreg workers that were constantly moving around the large space. Now facing away from the large doors to the base, Kei and the three guardians were met with a giant looming hole in an otherwise empty space, the large cargo space of the Ketch had been cloaked so that it was only visible from one angle. Now that Kei had seen it, he was beginning to have second thoughts, not that he was on the mission for his own enjoyment anyways.

Xor let out what Kei could only assume was an Exo's equivalent of a sigh, "Well…", he stated quietly, "Here we go guys…" With that he began to slowly step onto the wide boarding ramp of the alien flagship. Kei had to rend out several pulses in quick succession in order to keep up.

* * *

The whole point of the mission. The whole reason the three Guardians were risking their lives. Was because of both the Ketch itself, and the simply massive armada that was held inside of it. The three guardians made their way through several giant hangars, each held a vast assortment of Pikes, Walkers, and Skiffs. Each one the Guardians checked was fully stocked and loaded. This was an invasion Ketch, it housed the largest Fallen army ever recorded since the Collapse itself. This greatly worried the Guardians, if this mission failed. If one thing went wrong. This Ketch and the fleet it carried would very abruptly annihilate the Guardians along the last of Humanity.

They began to move faster through the ship, getting closer and closer to their destination: The ship's main engine bay. The engine bay was home to several large generators built of foreign Fallen technology. The three Guardians' goal was to set charges on the biggest one they could find, and then blow it sky high.

"Has anyone been in that Ketch on Venus?", Xor spoke up softly as they wound their way around a group of Vandals wandering the halls of the ship.

"I have been on several while responding to missions in the Reef against the House of Wolves. I have a vague sense of direction, but this Ketch is different, it is definitely a lot bigger than any other Fallen ship I have been on." The Titan said as she followed Kei's glowing outline closely.

Kei himself was too busy glancing around at the walls of the long hallways they were traveling.

Finally they stopped at a large circular door, not unlike the any others they had previously encountered. Xor stood and leaned up against the rusty metal frame, "Okay people", he said in a hushed tone. "The room behind this door should lead straight to the engine room. We get there, we can set the charges, and blow the ship." Kei and Trinity both nodded in acknowledgement.

Xor lowered himself so he could fiddle with the panel next to the door. Once again hacking the Fallen technology in a matter of minutes.

Hisssss...

"Oh Traveler's Light…"

The three guardians were frozen in place, staring in shock at the horde of Fallen Vandals and Captains that crowded the room. Along with the towering figure of an absolutely humongous Kell. It's helmet was adorned with gold and held the largest set of horn-like appendages the Warlock had ever seen. Every last one of them turned to stare at the door as it opened. Their eyes gleaming with confusion when they found the doorway empty. The Kell stood up and barked an order in the tone of the Fallen language. Two Vandals pulled out crackling energy swords and approached the empty passage.

"Nobody. Make. A sound…", Xor rasped to the other guardians as they slowly crept backwards. Kei watched as the two Vandals got closer and closer, trying to back up faster without making any noise. Then it happened, Kei accomplished something extraordinary.

He tripped…

As the Warlock reversed, he failed to notice that this was in fact a Fallen ship. The only place messier would be the rotten interior of a Hive vessel. His foot hit a small square storage container of either seeds. The Warlock crashed to the ground and effectively ruined his active camouflage, which flickered out as he lay on the metal floor of the Fallen ship. He sat up and glanced nervously between the two Vandals.

He hesitantly raised his arm and waved at them, "Heh heh… I was, um, just on my way out…"

The Kell on the far side of the room did not look pleased…


	5. Chapter 5: Hen in the Fox House

Trinity leapt from her place on the opposite side of the hall, sliding in front of Kei and throwing up a purple dome of energy just in time to stop the swirling bolts of blue plasma from frying the Warlock where he was.

Xor dropped down from the ceiling, Traveler knows how he got up there. Causing the Vandals to let out twin shrieks as six inch hunting knives pierced the fabric that surrounded their necks from above and sent them crashing to the ground with the Hunter on top of them. He twisted around and lashed out with an arm, sending one of his knives flying, blade first, into the control panel on the door frame. The surging tide of fallen was suddenly cut off as the thick metal door slammed shut with a loud bang.

"Okay!", Xor said, letting out an exasperated sigh, "Time for plan B." He lifted his gaze to the ceiling, causing Kei to notice the rather large air vent that spanned the length of the metal surface above. The Hunter raised his hand cannon and blasted the bolts off of one side, resulting in a new escape route for the three guardians. "Everybody up!", Xor stated, glancing over his shoulder to see the locked door behind him began to glow and boil as the Fallen began to melt their way through. Kei jumped first, using his powers to boost him up a few extra feet before coming to an almost silent landing in the ventilation shaft. Trinity followed shortly after, pushing down powerfully and sending her flying through the opening. Xor had just enough time to pull out a grenade and lob it at the door frame before throwing himself up into the hole in the ceiling, pulling up the vent behind him. "Warlock", he rasped softly. "Com'ere and use your sun-thingymawhatsit to weld this panel back on."

Kei shook his head before scrambling over and igniting his hand, quickly fusing the metal plates together so that they looked almost as good as new, albeit glowing red. After that they simply turned and began crawling in the direction they were going previously. Meaning, as Kei wanted to point out, that they were directly over a room full of more Fallen than he could count. Trinity and Kei released their Ghosts to light the way as they made their way through the dark vents, keeping as quiet as possible as not to give away their presence to any of the Fallen that may be wandering the halls below.

Xor led the three of them through a maze of vents, he took so many turns that Kei was unsure whether he knew where he was going or not. Even so Xor didn't hesitate in the slightest when confronted with an adjoining vent.

Left. Right. Left. Left…

"Are you sure you know where we're going?", Trinity spoke up in a hushed tone, apparently she had the same concerns as Kei at this point. The Exo just sighed and took another left without answering. "Xor… I understand that you were indeed on this ship before any of us. But you could not possibly have made it this far." The Titan's irritation only increased as she was once again ignored by the Hunter in front of her. She suddenly reached forward and grabbed Xor's ankle, forcing him to roll over so she could face him. "Xor you should know not to ignore your teammates!"

Xor sighed in his helmet before finally responding, "Guys relax… I know where I'm going…"

Trinity was probably scowling in her helmet, not enjoying the fact that the Hunter was strangely lacking on specifics. "Well then… If you find yourself familiar with our current position, how far are we from our destination…" She leaned back out of a crawling position and sat down in the vent, Xor rotated himself to a similar position, the air crackled with tension as the two stared at each other through their respective helmets.

"I'll tell you when we get close… It'll be fine…", the Hunter said, straining to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Trinity huffed loudly before dismissing him with a wave of her hand. The Exo nodded and turned to continue on his way.

* * *

Xor stopped and held up a fist, making an 'L' with his left arm and signaling them to stop. "Turn off your lights", he whispered. The two guardians hesitantly obeyed, nodding to their Ghosts to shut off their spotlights. Now the only light was a dim orange glow from what must have been another vent coming from around the next corner.

By the time Kei reached the metal opening, Xor had already pulled out a knife and was cutting away at the bolts that held the metal vent in place. Trinity pulled out her shotgun and began loading it with rounds. Kei himself pulled out his pulse rifle and reloaded it with a fresh magazine, pulling back on the charging handle before letting it slide smoothly back into place.

The final bolt fell to the floor outside the vent with a soft plink and Xor had to hold the vent in place to keep it from falling along with it. He carefully rotated it and pulled it back into the metal shaft, setting it down as quietly as possible. "Here we go…", he said before leaping out through the rectangular hole where the vent had been.

The Hunter landed with a graceful roll, barely making a sound as he came in contact with the metal panelling of the floor. Kei jumped and slowly lowered himself to the floor with a burst of energy. Trinity followed soon afterwards, her heavy armor proving difficult as she tried to land as quietly as possible, still creating a dull thud as she hit the floor. It wasn't too loud, but loud enough.

The engine room was sparsely populated with Dregs, the only main difference between these and those found in the warzones on the other planets, was that these ones had not pulled out their weapons yet. That soon changed as they all turned to the sound of Trinity's landing.

They turned and growled, baring their razor sharp teeth at the Guardians as the slipped knives out of their belts. The knives began to crackle with electricity as the Dregs got more and more agitated. They began to form a ring around the intruders, creating a wall of snarling teeth and sparking knives several bodies thick.

Kei raised his rifle, preparing to fire, he felt Trinity and Xor do the same. "Welp", the Exo of the three spoke up, "We were bound to do some fighting sometime in this mission…" The dark blue and yellow plates on his face shifted until they formed an almost maniacal grin. He quickly pulled out his hand cannon, twirling it a few times around his trigger finger before catching it and leveling it at the enemy, "Finally…"

The silent standoff lasted only a few moments before Xor blew off one of their heads, then all hell broke loose… The Dregs rushed forward in a tide of savage ferocity, swing their crackling knives in wild abandon. The first one to reach Kei was blown backwards in a roaring wave of fire from the palm of his hand. He then plucked a grenade off of his belt and rolled it along the ground. The explosion sent several Dregs flying, killed instantly by the intense heat of the solar grenade. Meanwhile, Trinity was blasting away at her own section of the Dreg army with her shotgun, Invective. Five rounds exploded into the faces of five enemies, she then dropped the shotgun and rushed at the remaining Dregs, pulling several of her own grenades from her belt as she ran. As the aliens attacked she gracefully dodged their knife slashes and planted a grenades on them before shoving them away. She was soon surrounded by a circle of very confused Dregs, just before they all exploded around her. The purple bursts of plasma showered her with dust and bits of shattered alien armor. Not too far away Xor was laughing like an insane asylum patient, wielding his large revolver and firing seemingly random shots into a third crowd of Dreg workers. He seemed to fly as he fought, taking huge leaps over the crowd and utterly confusing his enemies. Then he disappeared completely, leaving a tightly packed crowd of confused Dregs. A moment later the group of Fallen exploded as Xor detonated the charge he had dropped into the center of the group. He turned and grinned at his fellow Guardians as the bodies fell to the floor, "Are we done here?"

He was answered by Kei, the Warlock was busy kicking some of the Dreg corpses to confirm their deaths. "We still have to set the charges you adrenaline junkie." he smirked at the Hunter as his Ghost materialized several flat, disk-like objects and dropped them into his hand. "Zavala said five charges to an engine right?", Trinity nodded before planting some of her charges to the closest tall cylindrical engine she could find.

Xor busied himself with the large circular door on the wall behind them, hacking the terminal and locking it down tightly in its frame. Kei walked to the largest engine he could find and began sticking charges to all the important-looking parts: Large pipes, control panels, fuel tanks. All received a charge of their very own.

* * *

Finally, after a few minutes, Kei set down the last of his charges. He looked across the large room at the many tall engines, all of them each with their own scattering with explosives. Xor set of a transmitter on one side of the room, rigging it to the nearest charges to create a remote detonator for the three of guardians to trigger when they were at a safe distance. He stood and walked over to Trinity, removing a simple rectangular box from the backside of his belt. It was plain and grey except for a comically large red button with a glass covering. "Here ya go, that's the detonator that'll trigger the explosives. I don't recommend pushing the button while we're on the ship though. Things tend to get a little… Explode-y when that happens." He patted her on the shoulder as he passed, making his way back to the area below the vent and pulling out his MIDA Multi-tool and snapping a small cable mechanism to it.

For a minute Trinity stared silently at him through her helmet, she glanced back at the remote before putting it in a pouch on rear of her belt. She walked over to him and stood with her arms crossed as she waited for Xor to fire the cable into the air vent. The small harpoon shot from the attachment on the scout rifle with a sharp pop and lodged itself somewhere in the vent. The Exo gave it a few experimental tugs and pulled out a hunting knife, slicing through the cable and returning his weapon to the sling on his back. He took the cable in his hands and pulled himself up. He was followed by Trinity, Kei climbed up last. The cable was pulled into the vent and the slotted panel was welded back on.


	6. Chapter 6: Fallen Heroes

Kei stared out through the slots in the vent the three Guardians were hiding behind, "We're never gonna make it out of here…" The hangar was swarming with Fallen. All unloading had been halted and now one of the most massive Fallen armies in the system was blocking their only escape from the Ketch. A combination of Captains and Vandals stood in a rigid line, weapons raised and ready for a fight. Behind them stood the Kell almost seven feet taller than any of the other Fallen soldiers. On one shoulder it held a giant scorch cannon with two of its four arms, the other two clung to a shrapnel launcher.

"That's a whole lot of nope that I'm picking up from over there." Xor spoke from his place beside the Warlock.

"We have no choice. Either we punch through their lines or we detonate the ship now while we still can." Xor and Kei looked at her like she was crazy. The titan tilted her head, "What?"

Kei put his head in his hands while Xor explained, "Well, Trinity, no offence but… Well… Both of those plans suck in various ways." He paused, glancing down at the floor of the ventilation shaft before lifting his head and facing the other two again, "But they _do_ give me an idea…"

* * *

The three guardians crouched behind a pile of Fallen cargo containers, using them as a means to hide from the army of Fallen that opposed them.

"Xor that's crazy…"

"No it's not! It makes perfect sense!"

"I for one believe that his strategy may work. From a strategic standpoint of course."

"Fine but if I die I swear I'll come back and shove a grenade up your ass."

The Exo laughed and patted Kei hard on the back, "Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you will."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Xor rose to his feet and drew his hand cannon, clipping in a new 7-round magazine and locking it back into place before peering around the crates they were using as cover. "Okay, there are a few Skiffs between us and our four-armed buddies over there, the cloaks I gave you have a time limit so I'll try and clear the path as best I can." He turned back the his companions, "Remember your only priority is to grab a ship and get the hell out of here, I'll make sure to grab another one and follow you out as soon as I can." Trinity and Kei nodded before rising to their feet. Xor once again pulled out a spherical object and threw it at the ground. The device shattered on the ground and cloaked the three guardians in Xor's personal cloaking tech.

Kei opened the comm channel and spoke quietly into his helmet, "Good luck Xor, have fun being a temporary distraction buddy."

Kei pulsed his light and saw the Exo nod from where he stood before disappearing around the crates toward the Fallen masses. Trinity placed a hand on his shoulder, "The mission is almost complete, let us do our part.", she said softly in her helmet.

Kei nodded and they began to slowly make their way to the Skiffs.

* * *

 _Why am I doing this?_

 _What do I possibly have to gain from dying?_

 _I'm not one of them…_

 _I don't have to help them…_

Trinity's stoic facial expression flashed in his mind.

 _That's why…_

 _Dammit…_

* * *

The hangar was a mess, crates were strewn about as Fallen dropped what they were doing and flocked towards lines of Vandals and Captain's at the entrance. Kei sent out a pulse of light energy, confirming that Trinity was still about two meters ahead of him, making good progress despite her heavy armor.

They reached the first Fallen Skiff without confrontation and Trinity crept around the backside to find a panel to try and hack. Kei was to stay where he was and warn Trinity if any Fallen got too close.

 _Bang!_

Kei's attention was suddenly jerked to the giant Fallen Kell, for a moment not noticing any difference. Then, all at once, it's giant helmet exploded, showering the remaining army of Fallen in blue-black blood and liquid from the the airtight suit. For a moment the Fallen stood and stared in shock as their once glorious leader sank to it's knees and crumpled to the floor. Silence filled the room.

"Well _that_ was fun!"

Kei turned to see Xor standing atop a pile of crates, a large sniper rifle in hand as he released and slapped in another magazine. All at once, the Fallen charged him. Vandals and Captain's alike pulled out their shock swords and rushed at the hooded Hunter. Xor laughed and flipped backwards behind the crates, his active camouflage hiding him from sight. The army of aliens stopped and glanced around cautiously as the Hunter's laughter echoed ominously around the room.

 _Crack!_

What appeared to be one of Xor's arc grenades exploded in the middle of the Fallen army, sending Vandals and Captain's flying into the air, killed instantly by the blast that fried them inside their suits with the electricity that the small bomb had emitted. With the numbers of Fallen significantly decreased, Xor reappeared and began lighting up the enemy with fiery rounds from his hand cannon. The Fallen chased him, moving farther and from Kei and Trinity as the two worked to get access to the ship.

"Trinity, are you close yet?" Kei whispered into the comms.

"The Fallen technology is proving to be far more complicated than anticipated, I may need a few more minutes." Kei nodded to Trinity's response and brought his attention back to Xor and the Fallen. The Hunter was now doing flips and rolls in order to avoid the many glowing projectiles fired from Fallen weapons. He had dropped his hand cannon and had pulled out his scout rifle, the MIDA Multi-tool fired merciless armor-piercing rounds into the rapidly closing line of Fallen, tearing through their armor and leaving several of them to bleed to death on the cold metal floor of the hangar.

"The Skiff is now accessible to Guardians.", Trinity reported as her invisible form made it's way up the side of the Fallen dropship and slowly opening a hatch on the ship's roof. She lowered herself down carefully and began to flip switches and hit buttons like she had been flying Fallen craft for years.

Kei turned to Xor and raised his hand to his head, opening the comm channel, "Okay Xor, we're heading out on the Skiff, we'll be expecting you to follow us out soon."

The Exo's voice came back loud and clear, "Okay, see you two on the other side!" Kei grinned at the casual tone in the Hunter's voice. "Oh and tell Trinity to set the nav system to autopilot, if she puts in the right coords, which we both know she will, it'll warp you directly to that point in space."

The Warlock nodded, "I'll make sure she knows. Good luck getting off this bucket."

"You too buddy…"

* * *

The rooftop hatch to the Fallen Skiff closed with a hiss as the cabin pressurized. Kei skipped the last few rungs of the rusted ladder and landed on the floor with a soft clank. His boots repeating the sound as he walked quickly across the dimly lit cabin to where Trinity was sitting. "Xor said it would be faster to use-"

"The autopilot, I know…" Trinity interrupted as she pushed a few more buttons in preparation for their getaway.

Kei raised an eyebrow in his helmet, "Ooookay… how long until we can get out of here?" Kei asked the Titan. Trinity only continued to work on the ship's controls.

"Trinity?-"

"I would appreciate it if you would remain silent while I do this…", the Titan replied sternly, stopping only to cast a glance over her shoulder, her stern expression was revealed as she undid her helmet and lifted it over her head.

Kei sat in silence while Trinity furiously typed the coordinates of Earth into the Skiff's navigational computer. Suddenly the Titan sat up and placed her hands on the pilot's main controls.

"Here we go…"

* * *

Xor stopped momentarily when he heard the roar of a Fallen engine. He glanced over the wave of Fallen and saw a Skiff beginning to rise off of the floor of the Hangar. He smiled softly under his helmet, " _took ya long enough…_ " He thought to himself as he allowed his body to instinctively flow like liquid between the Fallen plasma bolts. He closed his eyes and let out a breath as his glided through the air, flipping backwards and landing in a crouch before rolling rapidly to the side. He opened the comm channel as he saw the Skiff turn and rush out of the hangar, engines roaring and burning with a bright orange light. "You guys got the nav computer set?"

Kei answered him, static beginning to break up the short-range transmission, "Yup, we're locked on and heading out now, sending you instructions on how to hack the Skiffs so you can get out of there too."

Xor sighed, still instinctively dodging the Fallen shots being fired at him, "That, um… That won't be necessary…"

The comms were silent for a moment.

Then it was Trinity who spoke, confusion lining her words, "Xor… Please clarify on your previous statement."

Xor pushed away from the ground again, gracefully flipping backwards to avoid the sword of a Captain. He cloaked as he flew through the air and hid himself among the Fallen cargo containers. "Plans have changed… I'm not going to make it off the ship. Sorry about that…" The Exo chuckled softly to himself, "Y'know, Trinity… It's kinda funny. When we landed I thought you were the most _unbearable_ person I had _ever_ met." He sighed to himself, "Now it seems I've actually taken a kind of strange liking to you…"

Trinity was frozen, not even blinking as she listened to him through the communications device in her ear. Her jaw worked silently as she tried to find words to say to the Hunter. Finally she managed out a few weak words, "Xor... why are you telling me this?"

Xor's only response was to sigh, "I don't know…"

Then the Ketch behind them became the solar system's smallest sun, most likely visible in the skies to all Guardians who happened to be watching...

* * *

 _ **End Part One...**_

 _(Yes, there is more on the way… I'm not_ that _heartless you guys…)_


	7. Part 2 Chapter 7: Return of the Lost

Arc 2: Return of the Lost

A Titan coughed into her helmet as she drifted through the empty void of space.

She wheezed into the respirator as the air grew thinner and thinner.

 _"Didn't get your helmet on right… Just breathe slowly… Just… Breathe… Slowly…"_

Trinity's vision began to blur as she stared out at the stars.

 _"Just… Breathhhhee…"_

Her eyesight went dark and she slipped into unconsciousness…

Her body slowly grew colder as it drifted through space...

* * *

Tink tink tink.

"Helloooooo…"

Trinity groaned at the voices that echoed around in her head…

"Hey Trin! I know you can hear me!"

Trinity's eyes opened to the bright glare of an overhead light, the white momentarily overpowering everything as her eyes adjusted. Her helmet was off, it sat only a few feet away from her on a nearby shelf.

The room was almost all grey, the metal paneling making it seem colder than it probably was.

"Welcome to the world of the living, hon.", Trinity's eyes darted over to the source of the voice.

"Zor…", she whispered.

The Exo grinned and chuckled quietly, "Miss me?"

At first Trinity was shocked; The Ketch had blown up… She watched it explode with her own eyes. She lashed out with a fist and sent the Exo flying across the room, slamming into the wall opposite from them, "Idiot!"

Xor groaned from his new place in the wall, "Jeez you could just say no…"

Trinity opened her mouth to respond only to close it again, her anger boiling over into fury as she gritted her teeth and stood up from the cot she had been on. "What were you thinking! The Ketch had to have some kind of transmitter on it! You didn't have to make us see that!"

The Exo stroked his chin, "Uh… Heh, sorry… Didn't think of that…"

Trinity stalked over to him and raised a fist threateningly, then lowering it and opting to grab the Exo's shoulder and tear him from the dent in the wall. "Don't you ever think of anyone other than yourself? How would you feel if it was me and Kei?"

As she spoke her voice began to waver, getting softer until the Titan sank to her knees began to breath heavily, fighting to hold in the emotions that she kept hidden from the world.

Xor sat and watched with sad eyes as she failed to hide the tears streaking down her lavender cheeks…

When she next looked up to meet the Hunter's eyes all trace of sadness had left her gaze, "Where's Kei…"

Xor sighed, "That… my dear friend…"

"Is our next mission…"

* * *

Kei sat, knees to his chest, on what was left of the Fallen Skiff. He had watched as Triton and the larger sphere of Neptune float farther and farther away. His respirator worked overtime to refresh and resupply the oxygen that the Human was breathing. The ship was crippled beyond repair, all that was left were iced over electronics and cold metal. Kei's head fell onto his knees as he replayed the memory over and over again…

 _The two Guardians stared through a monitor at the fiery remains of the Fallen Ketch, mouths gaping as they searched for the words to say._

 _Debris flew in every direction, threatening to tear their stolen Skiff apart._

 _Kei watched helplessly as everything around him seemed to flow in slowmotion._

 _Trinity began to reach for her helmet._

 _Bang! Crack! Whoosh!_

 _All at once the ship's port side cracked and exploded, sucking all the air out into the vacuum of space._

 _Trinity seemed to be falling in slow motion._

 _Her limbs waved slowly as if she were surrounded by a thick, clear liquid and her short hair cascaded around her head. Her yellow eyes wide with shock and her mouth was opened in a silent scream._

 _Kei's vision blurred as he watched, reaching out a hand in an attempt to catch her._

 _Instead he got to watch as the last of his fireteam was torn away into the vastness of space..._

 _Snap!_

 _Kei cried out in his helmet as his ankle caught on a trailing wire, cracking bones and sending pain shooting up to his brain._

 _The world went black…_

 _After that the Warlock continued to drift silently through space, tangled in the wreckage of a Fallen vessel._

 _Where he would remain in exile with his thoughts for a long, long time…_

 _Or so he thought…_

* * *

 **(sorry about the re-post, kinda realized the plot I decided on would quickly evolve into a dead end.)**

 **Here it is folks!**

 **The thing that maybe five or six people have been waiting for!**

 **Part 2 of the story that probably made people think I'm a heartless bastard!**

 **I will now be both editing my own previous chapters as well as writing these new ones. Also, I apologize in advance for my lateness when posting new stuffs. Mid-terms are coming up and my grades right now aren't the best so I'm going to need to focus on schoo more than I have in the past.**

 **But through all this "Life's a bitch" crap I hope you all find it in your hearts to (notice me sempai- jk) fav and follow my stuff so I don't feel like this is a waste of time. Seriously people, if you read my stuff and like it enough to finish reading the chapter, please let me know by commenting AND following the story. Don't be that guy/girl/potato.**

 **Anyways!**

 **Have fun reading and I'll hope you like my stuff!**


	8. Chapter 8: The Search Begins

Kei gasped in pain as he worked, carefully using a fiery hand to melt the solid ice that coated the wires entangling his broken leg. He worked slowly, expending as little energy as physically possible in order to make it last as long as it could. He knew it was inevitable, but he kept the thought of freezing to death alone out of his mind.

 _crack..._

The ice cracked and splintered, floating off of the wire and into space. The Warlocked reached out and tried to grab as many of the precious icy shards as he could.

Ice was water.

Water was air.

Air he could breathe.

With the cable now free of its casing, he carefully unwound the twisted appendage. He winced in pain as the splintered bones were disturbed, once again shooting pain into his body. He was fortunate that he was wearing _Samsara I_ 's, the tough material prevented his leg from being bent too out of shape. " _Gotta be calm_ ", Kei remembered the many lessons with Ikora and other Warlocks. " _A true Warlock is focused. Their attention is always on the task at hand._ "

He gritted his teeth, " _first thing I'm gonna have to do… Is try and heal my leg…"_ The Guardian then gathered up his strength, taking several deep breaths before focusing his solar energy into his hands as well as the broken limb. The bones shifted and began to slowly realign themselves with each other. He screamed in agony, not able to keep his pain contained any longer.

If sound could travel through space…

Kei's painful recovery would've been heard for miles around…

A few hours later and Kei was panting in exhaustion. His leg was slowly cooling as the heat of his sunsinger power began to leap back to his core in the Warlock's last ditch effort to conserve his power. Weakly, he reached for and took hold of the cord that had snagged him to begin with. He shakily tied it around his midsection, doing his best to ensure he wouldn't float off while he rested.

* * *

Trinity and Xor quickly made their way along the surface of Triton, their sparrows creating long trails of icy dust along the moon's grey surface. Neither one of them said a word until they reached the landing site.

Nothing had changed in the crater, much to Xor's delight. The ships, albeit a bit dusty and cold, were still intact and functioned well when started up.

Trinity turned to Kei's _Ether Eater_ , she raised her hand and summoned her ghost, ordering it to fly the ship to the tower and inform the Vanguard of their whereabouts. The small angular being nodded and phased into the hull of the green and orange ship. Moments later, it shuttered and began to lift off. The two guardians watched as its main engines roared to life and it shot away into the stars, bound for home in the tower.

"Ok then…", Xor said after the ship had disappeared from view, "Where do we start?"

The Exo walked over to his own ship. He lifted himself into the pilot seat and began flipping switches as the cockpit began to close around him, sighing as he recalled the familiarity of the controls and realized the reason he needed to use them again.

"I believe you saw more than I did, I was unconscious almost moments after I got my helmet on from lack of oxygen.", Trinity replied softly, her usual tone of confidence dulled a bit by the current circumstances. "You saw which direction the Skiff drifted in right?"

Xor only shook his head, "I was kind of preoccupied with not dying at the moment… I didn't see him either." The hunter's ship rumbled as it began to warm its engines.

The comm system crackled for a moment as it was switched from their helmets to their ships.

"That complicates things…", Trinity said, her voice on the comms was laced with the sound of her flipping switches while the machinery around her booted up along with Xor's.

For the first time in a long time, Xor was able to crack a smile, however sarcastic it may have been, "I think we should just go with our guts. For example, I think he drifted about forty five degrees off the Ketch's position."

Trinity's voice sounded almost astounded, "But if you have no solid evidence, how do you know he went that way?"

Xor chuckled softly to himself as he responded, "I don't… But it's better than sitting and trying to find something solid while our man drifts towards the edge of the known universe now isn't it?"

"I guess you're right. Forty five degrees from the crash sight it is then." Trinity's voice held a spark of amusement in it. "We fly in search of a friend whom has been lost to us. We will not return until he has been retrieved."

Xor laughed, "Alright then…"

"Hold on buddy… We're comin' for ya."

* * *

Kei's eyes opened to a squint.

 _Xor?_

They closed again as the Warlock thought to himself, " _Can't waste any energy… Got to rest…"_

He let himself go limp as he drifted alongside the wreckage, tethered to it by a lifeline of alien copper and spinmetal.


	9. Chapter 9: Frozen Secrets

_Cold…_

 _It was cold…_

 _The freezing temperature numbed the Warlocks limbs as he drifted through space…_

 _Threatening to consume him…_

 _He shivered in the dark void…_

Kei knew his solar power had gone out, leaving nothing left to draw heat from. He was now dangerously close to becoming a ball of frozen human tied to a frozen chunk of scrap metal by a frozen wire. He shivered and wheezed into his respirator, his breath fogging over his visor and obscuring his view of the blackness and stars outside.

Not that there was much to see. Kei had been drifting for so long he had lost track of time. Plus, there was no sun, so the Warlock was unable to count time as a rotation of orbit. Soon, all familiar stars disappeared from sight and he was left to drift through the void, no sense of time or place.

Probably as lost as he could possible get without dying. His breathing slowed to a crawl.

His eyelids became heavy…

He couldn't feel his body…

Kei felt the universe slip away as he surrendered to sleep…

 _It'll be better after a nap…_

* * *

Xor sighed in the cockpit of his _Gloriole Jump_ , leaning back and closing his eyes as he propped his feet up on the ship's console. He spoke into the comms, opening his eye just a crack to locate the button that opened the channel, "Hey Trin, ya think we should've stopped at the tower first? Pick up some supplies?"

He heard Trinity sigh before replying, "Yes perhaps that may have been a good idea. I believe we overlooked the fact that Kei's ship had the majority of our supplies as well." She paused for only a moment before reopening the channel and shouting indignantly, "Wait, what did you call me?! I believe I warned you not to address me with that- that nickname!"

Xor chuckled softly to himself, "Whatever you say hon."

"Just call me by my name please…", she sighed in response. Obviously annoyed with the Exo's repeated attempts to call her by seemingly anything other than her real name.

Xor suddenly sat up in his seat, eyes narrowing as he remembered something, something important. He flicked on the comms one more time and called out to Trinity, "Hey actually I think I need to stop somewhere."

Trinity's voice replied through his speakers, Her tone heavy with curiosity, "Care to elaborate?"

Xor's eyes darted nervously around the cabin of his ship, "I, uh… I'd rather not…" A small smile graced his features, "Just need to check on some old friends."

The Exo could almost hear the Titan raise her eyebrow in suspicion, "I'll mark our coordinates and trajectory. Then we can go check on your _friends_." The comms switched off only to be restarted almost instantly as Trinity quickly added, "And I'd appreciate not being shot at."

Xor chuckled in amusement and began setting his ship's warp drive to the new destination. "Don't have to worry about that Miss Steel. I'm sure you'll be fine."

" _Trinity Eversteel_! My name is _Trinity Eversteel_!"

* * *

The void was filled with the roar of uncloaked warp drives as the two ships skidded out of near-light speed. Trinity leaned forward in her cockpit to try and get a closer look at the small sphere of ice that floated in front of them. "This is it?" Any enthusiasm she might have had was completely drawn out of her voice by the grey planetoid.

She heard Xor sigh over the comms before he let out a somewhat exhausted-sounding, "Yup… This is it…" The Titan fell silent, realizing that whatever Xor had for coming here, it most likely wasn't the best memory based on his reaction to seeing the place.

Their ships glided down smoothly, the only greeting they got was silence as they touched down on a small dusty landing pad outside of a small bunker-looking structure. Almost the size of a Cabal dropship, it sat partially buried in an icy hill. Two thick double-doors were set behind the structure, creating a shadow where the light from the distant sun was blocked by the metal overhang.

For once, Xor was quiet, his thoughts seemed somewhere else as he climbed out of his ship, landing softly on the icy metal of the landing pad. He turned towards the small twin doors, staring silently through his visor as if in a memory. Trinity watched the Exo's slow movements, and how his gaze stayed locked on the doors as he walked slowly towards them. She shouldered her rifle, tightening the strap and sliding her sidearm into its holster on her thigh.

She touched two fingers to her helmet, opening the comms in an attempt to break the Exo's trance, "Xor?"

The Hunter made no response as he reached the frosty doors, Trinity watched as he hesitantly laid a hand on it's worn icy surface. Xor slowly brushed off a few frozen crystals, revealing yet more ice beyond the frost.

"Trinity, whatever you see in here…", he turned to the Awoken behind him, "Stays between us…" Even though his helmet hid his face, Trinity felt his gaze boring into her eyes as he continued, "Nobody can know… Not even Kei…"

Trinity stiffened slightly at the dangerous undertone in his words. She nodded slowly, assuring him that nothing seen inside would be shared.

Xor turned back to the door and lifted his arm to press a red button on the icy panel set in the thick door frame. For a while nothing happened, prompting Trinity to assume that the door's electronics had probably iced over like the rest of the base.

 _Crack!_

The frozen coating on the door cracked and shattered. It showered the two guardians in cold shards of ice and the door let out a hiss as pressurized gas began to flow through the broken seal. Trinity stared as the doors slid open about a few feet before the remaining ice locked it in place, allowing it to open no further. The Exo reached around to the back of his belt and pulled off a small flashlight which he then attached to his helmet. Trinity followed suit by pulling out her rifle and switching on a flashlight under the barrel. Xor turned to cast one last glance at her before he walked between the two doors and into the dark hallway beyond.


	10. Chapter 10: Shadows of the Past

_Eyes up Guardian…_

 _I joke with Cayde and Zavala about it all the time…_

 _Your most powerful weapon is knowledge…_

The voices swirled through Kei's mind as he drifted through the darkness.

He saw nothing.

He felt nothing.

He _was_ nothing…

Memories of his life as a warlock flew past him like moving holograms, images of people he knew.

Memories of the Tower.

The Vanguard.

The Traveler…

Then they... _changed_ …

The flood of memories suddenly confused him.

 _Are these_ my _memories?_

 _Where am I?_

 _Who am I?_

…

* * *

Xor's head began to spin as he walked farther and farther into the base. The bright beam from his flashlight illuminated the remains of the once familiar walls. His boots crunched on frosty crystals as he took cautious steps down the corridors.

Trinity's voice echoed when she called out to him, "Xor. What happened here?" The titan was peering down the barrel of her rifle, using the light it projected to keep track of Xor in the cold air of the base.

For a while Xor didn't respond, too lost in memory to quite hear her words as she spoke.

Trinity was about to repeat her question when Xor finally responded, "You saw outside right? It's kinda obvious that over time-"

"No Xor. I didn't mean the ice."

The Exo sighed, "Follow me…" He began to walk a little faster down the hall, turning a corner and stopping at one of the many doors that lined the hall.

As Trinity turned the corner to follow him, Xor's hand found its way to the barrel of her rifle. He pushed it down gently, "If you're gonna come into this room. I need for that to be put away, don't want you shooting anything…"

Trinity slowly lowered the long firearm and slung the strap over her shoulder, nodding to indicate she understood.

Xor pressed a button and the door began to slide upwards, motors whirred until the door stopped with a scraping noise that permitted no questions to the mechanisms condition. Xor huffed before ducking inside, disappearing under the door and leaving Trinity to follow.

The first thing Trinity noticed were the bodies…

Bodies of twisted metal lay scattered around the floor of the room, it only took a second to recognize the all too familiar features of the vex.

And there were dozens of them…

Every corner, every few feet was a new body. All were covered in a thin layer of ice, their dead eyes stared, dark and aimless, into the air around them.

Xor stood stock still as he stared around the room taking in the scene with a kind of cold understanding. His eyes scanned the room before falling over a frozen bundle at the far end, "Just had to play the hero didn't ya…"

He began to move towards the dark pile, stepping over the metal alien bodies as he got closer. Meanwhile Trinity had stopped to examine the robotic corpses, finding the explanation for the Vex's death in the many bullet holes that burrowed deep into their shattered midsections.

She looked up to find Xor crouched over another body on the far side of the room, "Xor these Vex didn't freeze-"

"They were mowed down by an idiot with a machine gun…", the Exo interrupted her, finishing the Titan's sentence in melancholy tone of voice. "I told you I was here to see old friends…" He rotated in place to turn his gaze to hers, "He was one of my best…"

Trinity stood and walked quickly over to Xor's place on the far wall.

It was…

"A Titan?", her voice was filled with confusion as she stared at the frozen dome of a helmet. Around the fallen soldier's neck was a thick band of probably once extremely warm fur. Xor brushed some of the frost away from the corpse's chest to reveal an innumerable amount of cracks and scorch marks. The chest plate was so blackened by the damage that Trinity had a hard time counting them all, "How many shots did he take…"

"...All of them…", Xor's reply seemed to drop the already frozen room several degrees more. He turned to the many bodies around the room, "They began firing and didn't stop until they were dead."

He stood and silently made his way out of the room, saying nothing as he ducked through the jammed door at the entrance. Trinity remained crouched by the fallen Titan, looking the body up and down.

Then something caught her eye, a long steel-grey object clutched in the dead man's frozen hand. She reached behind her, drawing a small knife from her belt to begin chipping away at the layer of ice to reach whatever had been buried with the corpse.

At last she was able to touch cold metal, she pulled off what remaining chunks of ice she could before hefting a rather large machine gun in her arms. From what she could tell, the weapon was ancient. A relic from long, long ago. Her head darted from the weapon to the door that Xor had exited through only moments before.

What was Golden Age tech doing in the hands of a Guardian…

* * *

Xor walked briskly across the landing pad towards his ship, his mind racing as he realized what must have happened on that day. A loud bang suddenly resounded through the air as he plunged a fist into the side of his ship, it's impact left a small dent from the force he had put into it.

 _Just had to play the hero didn't you?_

He tore off his helmet and chucked it as hard as he could in the direction of the base, it hit the metal doors with a crack and fell to the icy ground.

 _How could you do that to us?_

 _How could you do that to_ _ **her**_ _?_

"Xor?", The Exo turned at the sound of Trinity's voice. She was standing only a few feet away, her arm was extended, holding his helmet out so he could take it. Silence filled the landing pad until Trinity let out an impatient, "If you don't take it, it's going back where I found it."

Xor sighed and nodded, taking the helmet and placing it back over his head, hearing the seals hiss as it pressurized. He turned back to the Titan, opening his mouth to mutter a 'thank you'.

"Where did you get that…", Trinity tilted her head in confusion. He raised an arm and pointed to the new weapon clutched in her left hand.

The Titan lifted the weapon and held it out to him, "I could ask you the same thing." She shoved the weapon at the Hunter, who took it and turned it over, examining it like one would greet a long lost friend. "Xor, that's Golden Age technology. I will admit that isn't an original model, but whoever modified this weapon knew what they were doing." The Exo didn't respond, only continuing to stare at the weapon with shaking hands. Trinity took a step closer and placed a firm hand on the Hunter's shoulder, "What kind of Guardian has friends with extensive knowledge of Golden Age technology?"

Xor slowly looked up at her, his visor doing little to block the sadness in his voice.

"I… _We…_ Weren't Guardians…"

* * *

 **Hello People!**

 **Sorry for the wait, I had writer's block for awhile but through the magic of the soundtrack from Ori and the Blind Forest, I was about to continue trying to pull at your heartstrings about stuff from Xor's past and the possible loss of Kei.**

 **But all is well as I am not 100% heartless...**

 **And if someone died right now it would be hard to continue the story.**

 ** _Anyways!_**

 **Please be sure to fav, follow, and don't forget that reviews always help!**

 **See ya!**


	11. Chapter 11: Fireborn

A single consciousness spun endlessly among a whole lifetimes worth of memories. It saw them and watched silently as they played repetitively over and over again. Some taking only a few seconds, others seemed to stretch over the span of a few years as they drifted through its mind.

Every time the consciousness focused on one such memory, it noticed only a single, solitary, recurrence.

One word…

A name…

Kei…

The consciousness felt drawn to the name, and seemed to hesitate from its constant monitoring when it arose in the many images that made up the memories.

Every time the word was spoken… Something stirred…

Something familiar… Yet so far away…

 _Kei…_

" _Kei Dragdoul!",_ A strange voice echoed through the darkness.

* * *

 _The conscious was pushed into the next memory. Shoved into the form of a small boy, no older that seven, dressed in stiff blue robes. It stood in what looked like some form of courtyard, on top of one out of many rectangular stones that laid in the center of a long pool. The pool extended the length of the courtyard and at the end was a balcony where a tall white-capped mountain was visible._

 _Directly in front of the boy was a tall dark woman dressed in longer magenta robes, her steely eyes stared directly into the boy's own. The eyes petrified the boy and the foreign consciousness within._

 _The woman tilted her head, as it sensing something was off. She stared deeply into the boy's eyes, peering into the essence of his very soul, "Hello there…" The consciousness that sat within the boy shuddered, it felt as if the woman were addressing_ **It** _instead of the boy._

" _I sense that you are not who you appear to be, lost soul.", she permitted herself a warm smile, strange to be seen in comparison to the cold stare she had been giving the boy earlier. "Or perhaps you are. Perhaps you have only become lost in the weft and weave of time and space."_

 _The consciousness wondered in curiosity whether the person in front of them was speaking to the boy… Or rather seeing through the boy… To the lost consciousness within…_

 _A small chuckle escaped her as she knelt down to be a little above eye level with the small boy, "Be free, lost one. I hope to the Traveler that you regain your purpose in this life, and continue on your path to greatness…" With that she reached towards the boy, taking his head in her hands. She took a deep breath in before releasing it sharply as she pressed a thumb firmly to the boy's head, sending the consciousness reeling as it shot out of the boy and sped away from the boy and into the bright blue sky above._

 _From its place in the atmosphere the consciousness watched as the boy shook his head, as if clearing it of a bad thought or feeling. Clouds suddenly drifted sideways, obscuring the view of the courtyard from the consciousness's view as the consciousness found itself spiraling into another memory._

* * *

" _Focus Kei… Breath slowly… Can you feel the light? Is it calling to you?", it was the woman again, her eyes were steely but her voice was calm…_

 _This time the consciousness had taken a different point of view, staring down at the courtyard from above. It watched as a familiar boy sat cross legged on one of the rectangular stones, eyes closed as he did as the woman commanded. The consciousness quickly noticed a change in the boy, he was a little taller, and sported a new buzzed hair style that made his scalp seem to turn grey compared to the rest of his skin. His face was scrunched up in determination, struggling to focus on clearing his mind as his master told him._

" _Relax Kei, it seems you're so focused on clearing your mind that you have forgotten how to do it in the first place." The boy sighed and opened his eyes, slumping in place as he looked up at his teacher, "Remember Kei, in order to clear your mind properly you must be able to do it without effort. Let your mind flow as it wants, do not work so hard to bind it so tightly. This restricts your mind's freedom, and through that, its ability to choose its own path."_

 _The nodded, resetting his posture before closing his eyes once again. Both the woman and the lone consciousness watched, patiently. This continued for a while, so long in fact, that it was almost sunset before anything changed in the courtyard. But when it did change… It was worth the wait._

 _The air around the boy began to glow with a golden light. The woman smiled as the boy began to react to the ambient light energy around him, growing brighter until he was shining more than the sun setting on the distant horizon._

" _Ikora, what in the Traveler's name is going… on...", two voices faded as they walked through the circular doorway to see the boy's glowing form, shielding their eyes from his radiant glow. "By the light…", one of the newcomers, a tall Awoken, was unable to contain his amazement as he watched the area began to come alive with shoots of golden light, radiating outward from the boy like branches from a huge tree. They wound around the two vanguard leaders and snaked through the entryway from which they came, drifting to between the three towering vaults before flowing out over the edge of the balcony. The three senior Guardians watched as they followed an invisible path that seemed to lead straight to the traveler itself._

" _Well that is somethin'...", the second, Exo, newcomer said in a somewhat amused tone. "Looks like you might have something real special right there Ikora…"_

 _The boy's mentor nodded, smiling as she silently agreed with the Exo's statement, "Welcome to Guardianhood… Kei…"_

* * *

The consciousness was then pulled violently out of the memory and back into the darkness of the void," _Kei…"_ , it thought, " _Who is Kei?"_

" _The answer you are searching for is not far at all, my student…"_

The consciousness spun, its gaze flickered between the many memories before finally settling upon one that he had not yet seen.

The boy was an adult now, and stood between two other Guardians, a female Awoken and a male Exo, as they looked over the holographic projection of a large Fallen ship.

It started to remember...

" _It's time to wake up… Kei…"_


	12. Chapter 12: A Stranger Amongst the Light

"His name was Tiell. He was one of my best friends before I came to be at the tower." Xor began his story as the two guardians boarded their ships once again having secured the of the food rations the Exo had originally come for. "I'm sure you've heard of Mirage, or the 'Exo Stranger' as most guardians call her." Trinity nodded silently as he continued. "Well, she's the one who brought us together. The leader of our little group. There were only four of us, Mirage, Tiell, Valerie, and myself. All of us had been lost before Mirage found us and brought us together. Tiell lost his family, Valerie lost her parents, I lost my city, and we all lost our home to the Vex. Before the end of the month that they arrived, they had killed off over ninety eight percent of the population. They left no survivors, the only evidence of an attack was complete radio silence. The cities they hit became black holes, nothing that went in ever came out again." He sighed, "We formed our group in hopes that we could drive them out, or at the very least, protect the last pockets of survivors that remained. Well the fact that I'm here right now is probably the best answer. We failed and were pushed off the planet. Watching from one of the moons as their machines devoured our home."

"But how did you come to be a Guardian, and the others, where are they?", Trinity's voice crackled over the comms as they left the planet's frozen atmosphere.

"I'm not a Guardian Trinity. Never have been, never will be. I don't have a ghost and I don't do that weird light-power stuff you guys do. As for the others, I can't really say. We kind of parted ways a while ago and haven't made contact since. First Mirage disappeared, after that it was Tiell and Valerie, now it's just me. Doing my best to manipulate the vanguard leaders into fighting as many Vex as possible."

The Exo propped his heels up on the console of his ship, "Now I can't even do that. Not from here anyways…"

"You said something about Tiell and Valerie leaving at the same time, were they close?", Trinity's curiosity peaked as she attempted to learn more about the life her squadmate had kept hidden from the Tower and all its inhabitants.

Xor only let out a bittersweet laugh, "Heck no! Not anything like what _you_ might be thinking. See now, Valerie had lost her mom and dad. Meanwhile, Tiell had lost his wife and kids. They kinda just clicked, y'know? Big lug became more like a father to her than anyone else, and on top of that, Valerie was barely in her double-digits when Mirage found her so she still was in need of a 'guardian', so to speak."

He sighed over the comms, "Although now that I know the big idiot is dead. I can't help but wonder what happened to Lil' Val."

* * *

 ** _Sorry about the chapter being so short after such a long wait. I've had writer's block for the majority of the time and on top of that I've had school._**

 ** _I have come out of my writer's coma and will now try to write regularly again._**

 ** _See ya round!_**


	13. Chapter 13: Rescued?

_Tink tink._

 _HellOOOOoooo_

 _You in there?_

" **WAKE UP!** "

Kei jolted awake and jerked upright into a sitting position. His eyes were met with the blinding light of fluorescent bulbs shining from a high ceiling . The HUD in his helmet flickered into existence as he turned his head in a circle. He was in some sort of small hangar or cargo bay. Various crates lay in small piles around the room, restrained by thick nets that prevented them from toppling over.

"So. Are you gonna tell me what you were doin' floating through space tied to a piece of junk?"

The Guardian flinched in surprise and turned towards the voice, blinking in surprise when his gaze connected with that of an awoken woman, two more awoken stood behind her, both held very deadly-looking rifles.

Kei sat there for a moment, unsure of what to say. Should he tell them? What about the others? Surely they were still looking for him, how long would they go without finding him only to find he had already been picked up?

"Hey! I'm talkin' to you!", his attention was once again drawn back to the very angry trio of Awoken.

"I-I-"

"Oh for the sake of the Traveler, _Speak_ _ **Up**_ **!** "

Kei jumped and raised his hands above his head in a sign of surrender, "Okay! Okay! M-my ship blew up and I got lost, that's all!" It wasn't technically a lie, but before he knew it he was spouting out a response he hadn't really planned out. "Wait. You said Traveler. You know of it?"

The woman gave him a strange look. Somewhere between annoyance and impatience, " _Everyone_ knows what it is. You're one of them aren't you? One of those, what are they called…"

"Guardians?"

She looked him straight in the eyes through his helmet, as if just hearing the word left a particularly bad taste in her mouth, "Yes. _Guardians…_ " She turned her back to him, a snarl just barely concealed on her face, "The _Almighty warriors_ that the Traveler created with its dying breath. Protectors of all. Defenders of peace."

She pushed her way between the two Awoken and made her way through a door behind them, "Kill him."

Without a second's hesitation, the two awoken lifted their rifles and promptly blew a large hole in Kei's head.

His body fell heavily to the ground. Blood seeping from the cracks in his helmet as the two Awoken moved to drag him closer to the airlock, preparing to launch his body back into space.

"Huh.", one of them began to talk to the other, "Kinda warm for a dead person." The other nodded, heaving the body closer to the exit of the cargo bay before making his way over to the panel near the door.

 _ **Whoosh!**_

The two Awoken jumped and whipped around, their eyes widened in shock as they watched the man they had killed burst into flames and rise to his knees. His glowing figure planted his hands on the ground and pushed himself into a crouching position, he rose to his feet and faced his would-be executioners.

One of them fainted on the spot. The other sank to the floor and cowered, whimpering as the flaming Guardian walked over and punched the release on the door to the rest of the ship. The hatch opened with a bang to reveal another very startled looking Awoken woman, the same one who gave the order to kill him. She quickly pulled out a rather large hand cannon and fired it twice into the Kei's chest. Her mouth opened and closed silently as she watched the bullets slow to a stop mid-air and melt, falling to the floor as red lumps of metal before even touching the Warlock.

"That wasn't very nice…", Kei removed his helmet to reveal an angry scowl as flames continued to flicker in the air around his head and body. "If I were you. I wouldn't be pointing a gun at someone who's just spent who knows how long drifting through space."

* * *

"Is that a thing with you Awoken? The angry I'm-better-than-you attitude?", Kei had gathered the crew of the small ship, a stolen Cabal cargo ship that had been repainted and dubbed _Iron Vengeance_. He stared at the small group of people in front of him, two male Awoken, two female, and a Frame.

Allie, the Awoken that had given the order to kill him, stared back defiantly. She matched his glare with one just as fierce, "So are you getting off my ship now?" One of the male Awoken to her left snickered at her snide remark. "'Cause this is _my_ ship and I won't have it taken by some random stranger I found floating through space. Actually I'd go as far as to say you owe us. If we hadn't saved you, you'd still be a ball of ice drifting through the void."

Kei sputtered in fury, "I owe you? I owe- **You shot me in the head**! How does that, _in any way_ , give you leverage over me!?", he huffed and turned his back to the group, "Fine, whatever, just drop me on the nearest inhabited planet and then you can forget all about me. We can pretend that none of this even happened."

"I was- Testing you.", Kei just barely caught the split second hesitation in her response. She was lying. She had definitely meant to kill him, and now she was stuck with a seemingly unkillable Guardian on her ship. Kei prayed to the Traveler that she didn't know about light energy and how it worked. If she realized that his fireborn ability could only be used once, it probably wouldn't be pleasant.

The Captain put a hand to her face and sighed into her palm, "Rok, get us underway to our next port. I want to be there as soon as possible so we can dump this freeloader and get back to our regular supply runs."

An Awoken male with pale-blue skin and ragged black hair nodded and jogged through the door on the far side of the hangar.

"Katie, head back with Bill and make sure that engine stays together."

"You got it boss!"

"I am happy to comply"

The other Awoken female and the Frame exited the hangar as well.

Allie turned to the last of her crew in the room, another Awoken man. "Ok Kyle. You, uh… Just, guard the Guardian for me, ok?"

Kyle visible sagged in place as his Captain slapped him on the back and left to join Rok on the bridge.

The two stood there in the hangar, the air heavy with an awkwardness as the silence dragged on.

"Uh… Sorry I kinda made you faint earlier…", Kei spoke up in an attempt at conversation.

"N-no problem. As long as you don't roast me alive, I guess it's fine."

 _This is gonna be a long trip..._


	14. Chapter 14: No Deal

"Okay. We're here so get out.", Allie scowled at Kei as the cargo bay door hissed open, revealing the desolate surface of a run-down looking landing pad. Allie, Kei, and Kyle stepped off of the loading ramp and onto the pad's dusty surface, the clouds sent up by their steps were thrown out into the void as the small gravitational field created by the ship very quickly lost its hold on the small particles.

The Space station connected to the pad was surprisingly small from what Kei could consisting of a wide door marked _A-113_ in faded black letters. Allie walked to a panel left to the door and hit a button on the seemingly lifeless panel, causing the grey door to shudder and slowly lift open.

The inside of the base wasn't much better than the outside, however Kei quickly realized that the base was a tad bit larger than his previous observations had suggested. Any and all surfaces were covered in a layer of grey dust that drifted through the air when disturbed. Kei turned his head back and forth, taking in the base's interior and its state of obvious neglect.

"So, what are we doing here?" Kei's curiosity finally made itself known as the trio walked further into the base.

Allie walked over to a pair of sliding doors and pried them open, revealing an old rusted elevator shaft. A short glance down to the bottom prompted Kei to believe that it was indeed no longer working.

"Down the shaft. Kyle, get us a belay line." The Awoken nodded and walked up to the shaft. Leaning in slightly, he slung his rifle over his shoulder and pointed it at as much of a vertical angle that he could.

Something in the rifle let out a sharp discharge followed by the sharp sound of metal on metal. Kyle stepped back from the shaft entrance and tugged at the new tether he had just secured before detaching it from his rifle and nodding to Allie.

The Awoken Captain stepped forward and clipped the line into a small pulley on her belt. She turned her back to the shaft's entrance and leaned over into the empty space. Pushing off to allow herself to be lowered to the lower floors.

A few minutes later the three of them had regrouped about three levels down. As he followed the Awoken, Kei noticed that the rooms were actually clean in comparison to the ones above.

"So is anyone going to answer my question about why we're here?" The Guardian repeated, his irritation at being ignored was becoming increasingly obvious.

"This is where we're leaving you, of 've got a business partner we're supposedly meeting here. We give him what he wants, and we get you off my ship. Win-win right?", Allie said, finally replying to his question. She glanced over her shoulder at him, "I said this was your stop didn't I?"

"Well- Yes, but I said to drop me off at the nearest _inhabited pl-_."

"A-113… indeed is… _inhabited_."

Kei jerked his head around at the sound of another voice, his eyes widened behind his visor as he recognized the broken speech of something he had never hoped he see again.

The two Awoken quickly drew their weapons, they seemed almost as surprised as Kei was. "Eric never said anything about Fallen", he heard Kyle say.

"Damn bastard must've sold us out.", Allie replied.

Several sets of blue eyes suddenly appeared in the shadows that laced the darkened corridor. " _Vandals"_ , Kei thought to himself. In one fluid movement, the Guardian swiftly reached back for his-

Kei suddenly remembered that in all his time spent floating through space. Not once had he remembered to check his guns.

The first Vandal lunged, shock swords buzzing and crackling as they passed through the air almost a centimeter from Kei's helmet. The Warlock stumbled back, teetering on his heels for a moment before regaining his balance and facing his opponent once again.

A sound behind him drew his attention and he glanced backwards to find Allie and Kei also in a similar predicament. "They're in the ventilation!" Kyle's voice sounded strained as he used his rifle to deflect a blow from another Vandal. Kei turned and summoned his light into the palm of his hand, condensing it until it became solid enough to throw.

"Kyle! Hit the deck!", the Awoken instinctively dropped to the floor as a ball of orange energy sailed through the air and struck the Vandal in the face. It flailed about, struggling to remove the solid flames from its helmet. It stumbled and screeched as the fire grew hotter and hotter before bursting, engulfing the alien in a ball of angry red plasma and killing it instantly.

Kei dropped to one knee, leaning his head to the side to avoid getting decapitated by a shock sword. Reaching over his own shoulder, he grabbed a hold of the Vandals arm. He pulled down on the limb and, in a move he had seen Trinity perform multiple times, he threw the Vandal onto the ground in front of him. It laid on the ground in a dazed state for a moment, shaking its head and regaining its strength just in time for Kei to unleash a stream of flame into its face from the palm of his hand. Turning the surrounding floor black from the heat.

 **Bang!**

The two turned to see Allie holding a large hand cannon up to the jawline of a Fallen Vandal. The Vandal stood stock still, almost looking alive for a moment before a hole in the back of its head began to steam. Allie stepped back and shoved the large alien over with a foot, the body fell with a resounding crash as its armor-clad body dropped to the metal floor.

She nudged the body with her foot for a moment before suddenly whipping around and firing a shot out into the darkness Down the hallway. Both Kyle and Kei were surprised to hear another Fallen squeal and fall to the ground. The Awoken Captain pulled out a flashlight and shone the light down the hall, revealing another Vandal struggling away along the floor.

She walked over and crouched down, pressing the barrel of her revolver into the back of its head.

"I will ask a total of three times. Who. sent. you?"

For a minute the Vandal only growled, refusing to answer the Awoken Captain.

 **Bang!**

The fallen screeched again as Allie put a bullet through its other leg.

"This is the second time. Who. Sent. You…"

The Fallen whimpered for a moment.

"The next one goes through your head."

" _Ok! Ok!_ I tell!", the Fallen rasped from his spot on the ground. Allie leaned back from her place over the Fallen soldier.

"Fallen hired by no one.", the Vandal growled, "Fallen follow Awoken. Awoken imprison many Fallen Kell and Archon. Farik See Awoken pick up Guardian. Guardian kill many Fallen too. Farik says we kill two bird, one stone. Revenge for all Fallen." He dragged himself into a sitting position, "Fallen never forgive. We are Wolfpack. We will hunt you. We make deal, kill all Guardian and Awoken _Scum_."

He raised an arm and pointed to the trio that stood in front of him. "Death!", he roared, "Death to all! We come! We kill! You all perish at fangs of-"

 **Bang!**

Allie walked back in the direction of the elevator shaft, hand cannon still smoking, "C'mon. Looks like our deal was off. Let's get out of here." Kyle nodded and followed his Captain.

Kei looked around at the Fallen corpses, "Wait what about me?", he called to Allie, "Do I just stay here or something?"

The Captain stopped and tilted her head upwards in thought…

"Is the station inhabited?"

Kei once again glance at the bodies, "I don't think these guys really count so-"

"Then you can come.", Kei jerked his head back to the Awoken Captain to find her facing him, "Our deal was to drop you off at an _inhabited_ facility. My reputation as a trustworthy individual would be at stake if someone found you so there's no sense in leaving you here. On top of that you're actually not bad at handling yourself in a fight, always a good trait in our line of work as you have just witnessed.", she gestured to the dead Fallen with a nod of her head.

Kei smirked behind the surface of his helmet, "So you're hiring me? I thought you couldn't wait to get rid of me."

The Captain huffed and turned her back once again, "What? Do I look like an idiot? I said you can fight not _Welcome Aboard_. You can stay until we reach a place where we can dump your sorry ass without breaking out deal, and until then, you are under _my_ command. Got that?"

Kei grinned and gave the Awoken Captain a mock salute, "Every word."

* * *

 _ **Sorry about the wait Y'all. I know I said I'd be uploading regularly but apparently the universe had other plans with life so... Yeah.**_

 _ **Anyways! Here is the next chapter! Hope you enjoy it, if so don't forget to fav and follow.**_

 _ **Oh! I have also recently gotten a Wattpad account and am in desperate need of votes and followers. If you would like to read a more "grammatically correct" version of WTPS then check it out over there too! My username is the same there as it is here so it shouldn't be too difficult to find. The story also has the same title and cover art. I will be uploading a new revised chapter over there every monday so head over and see what you like!**_

 _ **See you guys around I hope!**_

 _ **Bye!**_


	15. Chapter 15: An End to the Journey

_Meanwhile Trinity and Xor scoured the stars for the presence of their lost friend. Searching every crack and crevice, every moon and asteroid, in what seemed to be an endless journey across the stars._

 _Then…_

 _On the outskirts of known human civilization…_

 _Their search came to an end…_

 _Even if it was not the end they had hoped to find…_

* * *

Two ships burst through the thick cloud layer of a frozen planet.

One short and compact, built for battle.

The other smooth and streamlined, silent against the white sky of the blizzard.

They set down in a snowy clearing, a bleached basin surrounded by a towering bowl of dark-stoned mountains.

The humanoid figures exited the various crafts.

An armored Warrior.

A stealthy Survivor.

The armed themselves and began their journey.

They Walked.

And Walked.

...and walked…

Driven only by perseverance and the will to find their long lost friend.

* * *

"Xor, we should turn back. If we do not retrace our steps we will lose them in the storm.", Trinity yelled over the howling of the freezing blizzard winds. They pushed against her strongly, almost threatening to send her plummeting over the cliff face that dropped down only a few feet away.

Her Exo companion turned back to face her, hooded cloak flapping violently in the wind, "The peak is just a few meters away. Once we reach it we can use your ghost to do a scan of the area." He turned back towards the slope calling over his shoulder as he continued up the snowy path, "Once we have the scan we can use the ships to drop us at any unusual geographic formations."

Trinity nodded and trudged through the snow after him. She tensed herself in preparation for the winds at the top, as they would most likely be the strongest yet.

"I am in the process of scanning the area for abnormalities Guardian.", Trinity had released her Ghost and it expanded, its many cornered pieces radiating out as it sent out bursts of light energy to get a good readout of the surrounding terrain.

"Two klicks north of our position there is an impact site of some sort. I'm picking up faint traces of light energy!"

Xor looked at the Ghost and shook his head, "That can't be right. That would put us back in the basin between the mountains. On top of that, we would have seen it."

The Ghost blinked, "I think you are misunderstanding. The impact site isn't in the basin, rather, it _is_ the basin."

Trinity caught her breath, she unslung her rifle from her back and peered through its scope. The Ghost was right, the mountains were not mountains at all, they were piles of earth thrown up by the impact of an object of colossal size.

"Traveler's light…"

* * *

When their sparrows finally reached the basin darkness had fallen, and the blizzard had been reduced to a light snowfall.

"Five hundred meters and closing on the impact site.", Trinity's Ghost relayed the message through the comm channel, informing both Xor and the Titan of the rapidly closing distance between them and their destination.

Xor pulled to a stop and dismounted his sparrow, glancing around the clearing that was located at the very center of the crater, "There's nothing here." His voice was clouded with confusion, "After all this time. I thought for sure…"

Trinity took a step forward as the Exo continued to turn around and examine the snow around his feet. Suddenly she stumbled as her foot caught on something for the slightest moment. She turned to look back to the footprints she had left in the snow. A strange golden-colored light flickered in one of the shallow holes in the snow she had left.

 _No..._

She reached down to pick it up.

 _This is…_

"That's Kei's isn't it?"

Xor stood only a few feet away, watching as she lifted the object in her grasp and stared down at it through the smooth dome of her helmet. She held it out for him to see and he gently took it in his hands, staring silently at the gold shield that represented all Guardians as it flickered from the lack of a light source.

"It's his bond. The only one he would ever wear on our journey to the Ketch.", Trinity spoke solemnly to Xor, hoping he would understand what this discovery implied about the fate of their Warlock friend.

"We should get going. We need to report this to the Tower." Xor tucked the Bond in a pouch on his belt before walking back over to his sparrow as Trinity used her ghost to summon her own.

The bursts of their engines sounded almost lonely as the snow falling on that frozen world finally stopped for the day. As if nature itself was mourning the loss of Kei, the hero lost to Fallen…

* * *

"Today we stand in recognition those who have fought to protect this great city.", the Speaker's voice rang loud and clear across the courtyard in the tower. Reaching the ears of all Guardians gathered to hear "These Guardians went above and beyond to complete a task greater than almost any other. We stand to honor, and praise them for their actions on the battlefield against the Darkness that we have struggled for so long against. However they have more than succeed on their own mission. They have left a message to those both with and against us. We are what remains of the Light; and we will not be stamped out." He gestured to his left with a sweep of his hand, directing the crowd's attention to Trinity and Xor, "These Guardians have show us what we are, what we have always been, and what we will be again."

Trinity and Xor stepped forward, silently rehearsing the speech she had prepared beforehand in her mind.

"I realize that, while this is a joyous occasion. We must not forget the one who sacrificed everything for this mission, Kei Dragdoul. He fought hard, even though in the end he was unable to continue doing so. But let us not be disheartened by his sacrifice. Instead, let us follow in his footsteps and strive to drive the darkness from our sight and out minds.", she finished and smiled while the crowd clapped and cheered as her speech came to a close.

 ** _Wow! 15 Chapters of Destiny Fanfic!_**

 ** _I honestly never expected for it to get this far. This story started almost purely from boredom and evolved into something I can (almost) be proud of. I really hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!_**

 ** _As you can probably guess from the reminiscent tone in these words, yes, I will be taking a little break. It's just that with my life right now being as it is I am finding it harder and harder to create time to simply sit and write. However, FEAR NOT! This story is under no circumstances dead and I have no desire to make it that way. So don't abandon all hope just yet._**

 ** _I have a few Ideas for sequels that have been bouncing around in my head ever since Xor and Trinity discovered Tiell (A deceased friend from Xor's Non-Guardian past) There's also the matter of Kei and what really happened to him. All in all I know that this will definitely NOT be the end. Just a short Hiatus (yes I said the H-word) until I can get my life together._**

 ** _And as usual don't forget to fav/follow if you liked the story._**

 ** _I'll see you later!_**


	16. Sequil?

Hey!

Guess what folks...

I IZ B BACK!

Just so you know, there IS a sequel to this story now. A word of warning though, it's kinda dark so far with the release of the Destiny 2 teasers.

Don't worry, as the story progresses it Will get better, so yeah. Just gotta set some things up first...

See ya around!

~HB


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